Lac Bay

Lac Bay is a huge, shallow inlet on the east side of Bonaire.  The reef lies at the mouth of the bay and stops the waves. Most of the bay water level is only about 4 feet.  You can walk the entire area which is 7 square kilometers but it is slow because you are wading through the water.  Mangroves cover the north end of the bay and is a nursery for fish and birds.

This is only 4 miles from our house.  It is the main wind surfing spot on the island. No boats allowed. However, when we were there there was no wind. It was super hot and muggy.

The Sorobon Resort houses rustic cabins right on the beach.  There is a great beach bar and lounge chairs from which you can see all the action. We ate lunch at the resort.  It was full of Dutch families on holiday. 

This time of year is a big holiday season on the island and ,I guess, in Holland as well.  There is Easter, Carnival, Kings Day (April 27), and Dia Di Rincon (which was cancelled due to Covid). Schools are out for almost a month for "Spring Break".

Usually this beach is packed with tourists.  This day, with no wind, the place looks deserted. We love deserted beaches.  We hung around for the afternoon and enjoyed solitude.

Cold

We must be acclimated to warm weather.  It is 78 degrees today and raining.  We are freezing.  We had a discussion of getting our fleeces and socks out of storage.  It still might happen. For now, we put on long sleeves, closed all the doors and windows and are huddled inside where it is warm.  

The weather reports are not always accurate. The report said light rain and 30% chance of rain. It has been raining all day.  This is the first time we have had thunder during a rain storm. 

Because all-day rain was not reported, I went shopping in Kralendijk.  It was sunny this morning and was a perfect shopping day. I didn't take an umbrella or a hat. The minute I stepped into the first store, it started to rain. By the time I had gone from store to store, I was wet from head to toe and looked like a drowned rat.

Although the rain on Bonaire is warmer than in Colorado, it feels cold to us. We have acclimated!

 

Power Outage

We had a power outage last night.  It lasted about an hour and a half. The power has been on and off most of the day. 

As we laid in bed we contemplated our next move.  Air conditioning is a necessity at night when the temp is 78 degrees and there is no breeze.   We talked about using bug spray and moving outdoors.  We also talked about opening the sliding door and window and staying in bed. Our bedroom stays cool throughout the day with no air conditioning so we thought we would be okay.  We unplugged our phones which were not on surge protectors.  Rick got his flashlight and went outside to see if we were the only ones without power.  It was dark and quiet with no lights and no machinery running.

The power came back on as did the air conditioner.  We went back to sleep.

This event triggered us to think about living without services. Living on the island we are in a precarious position. Electrical outages seem to be a regular occurrence. We are dependent on our computers, phones and internet which require electricity for charging.  All of our appliances require electricity.  Our water is a pressure based system meaning that we would have water and sewer services. 

We need to move up the timeline for backup power supply.  We will consider purchasing a generator, adding solar and buying more batteries for our flashlights.

 

Clothing

Did I tell you that it's hot here?

Rick and I brought way too many clothes and the wrong clothes to the island. The T-shirts that were comfortable in Colorado are way too thick and hot for the tropics. Rick wears a T-shirt and shorts when we are going out.  At home and at the beach he is wearing swim trunks.  His collection of Tommy Bahama shirts is ignored because of the casual atmosphere of the island.

I wear sleeveless tops, shorts and swimsuits.  On a fancy day, I put  on earrings. Yet I have a closet full of short selves tops,  heavy cotton T-shirts, and leggings as well as a jewelry cabinet full of earrings, necklaces, and rings.  What was I thinking?

We planned this move for a year.  During that time, I culled the shoe herd at least three times.  I even stored boots and winter shoes.  Yet I somehow managed to bring 13 pairs of shoes and flip-flops with me.  

If you think I am the only one with a shoe problem, I am not.  Rick brought just as many shoes as I did and he now only wears his flip-flops. The other day he did wear his sneakers to get on a ladder.

These are the only shoes we need. We stocked up on swim suits before we left.  We should have stocked up on light weight clothing and sun shirts as well.

 

 

Post Office

This is our infamous post office.  It is currently under investigation by the Netherlands for its inability to deliver mail in a timely fashion.  They are going to study it for a while before they actually do anything about improving services.

The post office serves as the payment center for government permits, licenses, taxes and ballots. As you may recall, we had to go to the post office to pay for our license plates and pay the road tax. Our house tax paid annually may or may not come via the post office. We have also received ballots postmarked in Bonaire to many people who do not live at this address.

The post office does not seem to deliver mail or bills.  WEB (our utility company) delivers their bills and it does not go through the post office. It seems WEB knows that their bills would never get to their customers if they were handled by the post office. Our realtor told us that she was still waiting for an Easter card from her Mother in Pennsylvania from 3 years ago.

The post office does have mail boxes for rent.  I don't understand this since no mail is delivered on the island. 

Perhaps this is just an ex-pat issue. Maybe the Dutch get mail. 
 

Homemade

People in Bonaire make food in their house and sell it on a Facebook web page called "Bonaire 4 sale". 

Recently, I saw a listing for cream puffs.  Mr. Fung makes cream puffs on the weekends and sells them.  You place your order online, he texts when it's ready, you drive to his house, he comes out and gives you your order. These were $2 each. He lives in a big modern designed home 3 minutes from our house. He must do this for fun.

Lionfish are an invasive species in Bonaire.  They eat everything. There is open season on Lionfish all the time.  Spear fisherman can take as many as they want.  No limit on anyone hunting these fish.  So there is this guy that makes lionfish soup from his home.  He makes a small batch, freezes it and sells it for $5 from his house.  Again, you text on "WhatsApp" , place an order and go pick it up. 

Here is our addition to homemade.  These are golden mangos from our Mango trees.  They have been green since we got here in February and have now turned golden and ripened.  Mangos fall to the ground each day.  Rick retrieves them and we eat them with our breakfast yogurt.

The harvest is like all the oranges and lemons that ripen all at once in Arizona. In Bonaire, the mango trees produces way more than we can eat. Everyone tries to give them away before they spoil.   Many people put them outside their gates for free pick-up and anyone that visits leaves with a mango or ten.  These are also the favorites of the donkeys that roam the area as well as the parrots (known as Lora's in Bonaire).

VPN

We purchased a VPN. The VPN allows us to stream from a US address and order from US companies.  

Ordinarily, Netflix is not available in Bonaire.  The VPN allows us to get a subscription to Netflix because it looks like a US address. Most online orders from US suppliers are blocked from foreign countries. The VPN allows us to order from Amazon (with delivery in the US, of course).  I miss Amazon orders that come in 24 hours. There is no Amazon delivery here.  

OMG I did not realize that I missed television until we got Netflix hooked up. It has been three months since we last watched TV.  We have been busy with other activities and didn't seem to miss it.

So far, we have only watched TV a couple of times in the evening.  Looking at full-color motion was thrilling after a long hiatus. The TV in the bedroom is huge.  It's the first time we have ever had TV in our bedroom.

Life seems a little more normal with the option to watch TV. Since we don't have cable this is the next best thing.

 

Gasoline

Bonaire has five gas stations. These stations provide all the gasoline and diesel fuel for commercial and private use.  The airport has its own pier and storage tanks for jet fuel. All fuel is shipped in, transferred to storage tanks, put on tanker trucks and delivered to the gas stations.

When you arrive at the gas station you have to give them a credit card or pay cash before they will turn on the pump. I wish they would figure out swiping credit cards as it would speed thing up and make it easier on everyone.  There are two islands that have two dispensers each (one on each side of the island.  There is typically a line of four to five cars for each pump no matter what time of day.

Today, Monday, all the workmen were getting gasoline. This guy was filling four 55-gallon drums loaded in the back of a pickup.  He was filling them with the nozzle and was there for an hour.  Everyone in cars went to other lines.

There is no regulation, it seems, for transporting hazardous materials like gasoline on the island.  In America, the feds would have cardiac arrest and issue a million citations and fines if they saw this at a gas station. The environmentalist would scream "bloody murder". OSHA would shut everyone and everything down. But this is normal for Bonaire. 

In Bonaire, there is one line that has a service person that puts gas in the car and walks your credit card back and forth to the cashier. This is a nice service and one we haven't seen in 50 years.

We fill up twice a month. This time, we paid $44.99 US for 43 liters. Since I was driving I learned where the gas tank release button resides...something that I hadn't seen or used before. (Rick has me on lesson plans for learning how to do stuff on the island.)

 

Mail

As I have mentioned to most everyone, there is no mail service on or off the island.  Everything must be shipped by FedEx or DHL.  There is also an app of community travelers called "iCanBring .com" .  This group connects travelers with those that need envelopes and small packages delivered. Visitors, often called "mules", are asked to bring goods that are not available on the island in their luggage.

We had our first experience with DHL. Our bank in the US needed a notarized signature. They would not accept a fax, scanned copy or photo of our signature on the document. Even through they have our signature on file.

We went back to the Notaris that conducted the closing on our house to get our signatures notarized.  There are only two Noraris's on the island and you must make an appointment with them to obtain their services.  Notary services are free in the US but our cost on Bonaire was $57.00 US.

With the notarized documents in hand, we went to the DHL window.  We shipped the envelope for $92.25 US.  It is supposed to take 3-4 business days to get to our bank in Colorado.  We'll see.

The moral to this story: do not expect mail from us. All future cards and letters will be sent electronically or in person when we return to the States. 


 

Sahara Dust

Every March, Sahara Dust makes it way to the Caribbean. With winds of 24 mph or more, the entire island of Bonaire is coated in red dust.

A volcano recently erupted in St. Vincent. It seems that the volcano ash would be blown west over Bonaire and on to central America.  The weather reporters said that the ash has to be blown high enough to be caught by the trade winds. We have not gotten any ash or smoke from the St. Vincent volcano.

We do have Sahara Dust everywhere.  It coats the cars, patio, floors, furniture and even clouds the swimming pool.  We have had hazy days for a week now.  Today was the first day of blue sky and sunshine.

The dust does make for great sunsets.

 

First Guests

We had our first guests for dinner. The government lifted the quarantine from Level 6 down to Level 5.  So we were sort-of allowed to fraternize.

Two years ago we rented Jan and Steve's house while visiting Bonaire.  We loved the layout of the house, the position of the house on the lot and the swimming pool.  We wanted something similar.

It just so happened that the house adjacent to Jan and Steve's was for sale.  It was the house we bought.  

Steve and Jan (also expats) moved into their house full-time, three days after we left the vacation rental. Steve and I had stayed in touch throughout the last year.  He would keep us apprised of the island opening, weather conditions and general activity around the neighborhood.

Once we arrived on the island, we invited Jan and Steve over to see the house.  The neighbors had never been here because the previous owners kept to themselves. 

Jan is a gardener.  She has supplied me with cuttings from her garden. She and I take walks together and evaluate other neighbors yards and learn about native plants.  Sometimes we even take cuttings from the neighbors plants.  Jan also digs up plants in the open space.

We all had such a good time after several bottles of wine that we had to take a selfie to remember the event.

 

Flowers

All the flowers on Bonaire seem exotic to us.  This is a bloom on a heliconia.  It's bright red and big.

The orchids are blooming as well.  This one in our backyard is growing out of pot set into a palm tree. It looks like a daffodil but it's an orchid.

This orchid is growing from a palm tree.  It is stapled to the tree with no pot and it's roots just hangout. And it blooms!

When I was growing orchids in Denver, I would water, fertilize and fuss with the plants to  get them to bloom.  Here they just grow with no attention.  

This orchid looks like it should be dead.  But it blooms and has heart shaped flowers.

Cabana

We love our Cabana.  We didn't think we would ever use it but we do.  Rick gets up early to work and sits in the Cabana.  I join him later (much later) for coffee. It gives us a whole new prospective of our house.  
 

In the evenings we lounge in the Cabana. It's a perfect time to have an adult beverage and wind down after a busy day of relaxing.

The Cabana is like living in an Arabian nights movie.  The lighting is done in middle eastern style.  Pillows pack the queen size bed.  It is covered with throws and blankets to complete the ambiance.

Hair Cuts

We have set up a hair salon station at the house.  None of the hair salons or barber shops are open by order of the government.  So we have to take care of ourselves.

I had started cutting Rick's hair when we were in lockdown in the US.  I was practiced.  Although I still haven't gotten the hang of getting the length the same each cut.  Sometimes my cuts are too long and sometimes too short. Getting each side even is the real trick. 

My hairdresser in the US (you know who you are and I miss you terribly) gave me instructions and even told me about the supplies and equipment to get.  All of which I brought with me. 

Rick has a learning curve. He is not used to cutting hair. I keep telling him it's only hair and it will grow back. The cut wasn't perfect but it was his first attempt.  It's nice and short....Yikes! 

Now I am going to have to teach him how to do color.

   

 

Palms

I always thought I liked palm trees.  They have really cool flowers that hang down like tails from the center of the tree.  I am not a fan, however, when they drop all their blooms into the pool and all over the patio. 

 

The pool boy is tasked with cleaning the pool and its a constant project to keep the pool clean. So far only one tree has bloomed with multiple tails.  We have six more trees ready to dump their flowers.

The pool skimmers are working over time to collect all the junk on the surface of the pool. The pool boy may go on strike.  It's a real problem.

The only thing saving the palms from getting a drastic haircut are the orchids that are also blooming on the trees. 

Like Rick always says, " If this is the worst thing that happens to us this week, than we have no problems at all".

Vaccines, Covid, Hospitals

We got our second vaccine last week.  Twenty-four hours after the shot, we were feeling exhausted.  We just laid around for a day. By day three were were good. 

I am sure these shot cards look different from the ones in the US.  These are what they look like in Bonaire.

The island has over 10,000 people signed up for the vaccine.  That's about half of the population.  They are making progress to get everyone vaccinated and stop this surge in Covid cases. On April 12 the island had 109 active cases of Covid with 330 in quarantine.  These numbers are way down from a high of 400+ cases a month ago. Fourteen people have died.

In Bonaire, 10 people are in the hospital with five in intensive care. The hospital is small but has intensive care units and respirators.  Holland sends nurses and doctors to help out the local staff. We have also had a medical military boat visit the island in one of the previous outbreaks.  

They have sent five people to a hospital in Columbia because they are overloaded here on the island.  I told Rick that I would rather die than go to Columbia for treatment.  I can't imagine being in a third world county hospital. They also send people to the Aruba and Curacao hospitals that are also supported by Holland in both staff and equipment. Hospital and medical care is socialized and provided without charge to residents of the island or Holland. 

We hope lockdown will end this week.  We are anxious to get back to living our lives in Bonaire.
 

Propane - Part 2

We got a propane tank! With propane!

If you recall from a previous blog, we purchased a grill  a month ago and tried to get a propane tank from the government owned supplier.  We were told it would be three weeks before we could buy a tank and propane.

 It is never easy to get anything done on this island.  The number we had Curoil to call about tank availability was wrong so we had to drive back to the boonies to check. We were under no illusion that they would have tanks and/or propane.

The demand is so high during the lockdown that they can not keep tanks or propane in stock.  The propane comes from Curacao as Bonaire has no refinery or production facilities. God forbid that they bring more propane onto the island during times of need. No supply and demand economics here. As you recall, only one tank per family is allowed. Rick got a tank with his passport. Yes, you have to show an identification document when buying a propane tank on the island.

Although we got a propane tank, we didn't have the fitting that connects it to the grill.  No one told us that there is special fitting and regulator for these propane tanks and it is not the one that comes with the grill.  We got directions in Spanish to the local hardware store. After a few loops and around the block we found Boomerang Hardware.  Boomerang, of course, has two different fittings and only one of them in stock.  We drive back to the house to get the grill part so we can show it to the hardware girl.  

It turns out that you have to cut off the regulator that comes with the grill and put a new one on that fits the propane tank.  Why do they sell grills with fittings that don't work with the propane tanks on the island? Geesh.

We are so excited to have a grill with propane. It's been three weeks in the making and finally we have it set up and ready to go.

Saturday steak night is back, baby! 

 

Cloudy Days

We love the sunshine and warm weather in Bonaire. The bright blue skies with floating clouds are fabulous.  However, sometimes it's nice to have a cloudy day.

The  daytime temperature does not change in Bonaire more than one or two degrees.  It is almost always 84 degrees...rain, shine, clouds or clear.

Our favorite time to walk on the beach is a cloudy day.  The breeze is perfect, the sun is not intense and it's not as hot. 

Rick and I laugh that we like cloudy days. We always loved the bright sunshine when we were on vacation.  So vacation is different than living somewhere full time. And, yes, you do get your fill of all the things you love about vacationing in the Caribbean. Now, we can enjoy those things at our leisure instead of packing them into a week or two of vacation.

Sunshine or clouds, life is good on Bonaire.

 

Architecture

Houses on the island come in a rainbow of colors.  Most are single story, except on the beach where they sometimes are as many as three stories. Buildings on Bonaire may not be higher than the Authority House (a government administration building).  High-rise is therefore not really found on Bonaire.

In our neighborhood, Belnam, houses come in crazy colors. The houses are 1970's vintage with flat roofs and surrounded by walls.  Some have tile roofs and other even have thatched roofs. We don't know if there are building codes and/or restrictions.  To us, it looks as though anyone can build anything they want, particularly in residential areas.

The colonial Dutch houses have double pitched roofs with narrow dormer windows and white shutters.  Also painted in bright colors.

This is the Marriott on Bonaire.  The suites were built to mimic the colonial Dutch architecture typically associated with the water front buildings on Curacao that show up on all the tourist information.